Does MacOS notarization work for Apple Arcade MacOS apps?

Question

Created Dec ’20

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Hi, I've spent a day trying to notarize an Apple Arcade MacOS .app file. The catch is I need to use the commandline, not Xcode GUI (long story.) At this point, I'd just like a sanity check whether the Apple arcade entitlements might break the notarization process. Everything is succeeding--the notarization server returns success, and all the validation tools like "spctl --assess" that I can find also report success. But the app crashes with the very generic "Namespace CODESIGNING 0x1" error, and other forum posts indicate this may be caused by the entitlements file. Apple Arcade has some strange new entitlements. Has anyone successfully notarized a MacOS Apple Arcade app? The other odd thing is even though the notarization server reports success and "success" shows up when I check the notarization history, I haven't gotten any emails, like I have in the past. Thank you, any help very much appreciated.

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Answer 1

HackXR OP

Jan ’21

I am having similar trouble too..

MacOS dirtro of Unity Game, using Apple Arcade.
I can build, sign, verify and notarise and yet the binary just hits a black screen and then crashes.

Always claims problems with signing and kills the app.

I am using a Developer ID Application cert and have exhausted every bb on the subject now.

Curious to know if others are experiencing the same thing?

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Answer 2

Etresoft OP

Jan ’21

Curious to know if others are experiencing the same thing?

The post hasn't been updated in a month. This is not Stackoverflow. It's pretty much you and me here.

You should probably start your own thread and post more details about your app. I know you said "dirtro of Unity Game"(?) but that doesn't have any meaning. If you want help from Unity, ask Unity. What does your app bundle look like. How did you build it?

Please note that you most definitely did not notarize it. If you had, then it would work. You ran some some commands no doubt. But then it fails, meaning your notarization did not work. The log should contain more details about exactly what happened. Granted, the log is really, really difficult to use. But it is what it is.

I can tell you right now that notarization problems are always the same. Some crazy open-source project, built in new and unsupported ways, tested only on a developer rig, with little thought as to how dynamic libraries work. A recipe for failure.

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Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Jan ’21

Coming back to the original question (which I missed because I was out of the office)…

Does macOS notarization work for Apple Arcade MacOS apps?

No.

Notarisation is only relevant for Developer ID signed products. Apple Arcade uses a special entitlement that’s limited to the Mac App Store. Thus, it’s impossible to notarise an Apple Arcade app as it stands.

If you’re building an Apple Arcade title and want to create a Developer ID build, for testing and so on, you’ll need to remove the Apple Arcade special sauce. At that point you’ll have a standard Mac app and can notarise that.

IMPORTANT While I work for Apple, I don’t work for the Apple Arcade team. The above is about the technical details only; I have no insight into the business aspects of Apple Arcade.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

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